


Longer Then Our Lives Endure

by FaultyParagon



Series: Laws of Attraction-Verse Fics [17]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Canon Compliant, F/M, Family, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, Loss, Phone Call, Post-Volume 3 (RWBY), arkos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-10
Updated: 2019-10-10
Packaged: 2020-11-28 21:00:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20972984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FaultyParagon/pseuds/FaultyParagon
Summary: The leaves of Forever Fall remind Jaune of Pyrrha's hair, and for just a second, he lets himself believe that maybe Pyrrha's still there with him. She isn't.-Set in between volume 3 and 4 during the rebuilding of Vale, when Jaune finds himself on a mission to Forever Fall. It's not pleasant for him.You do NOT need to have read 'Laws of Attraction' in order to read this fic.





	Longer Then Our Lives Endure

**Author's Note:**

> This is set between Vol. 3 and 4, during the reconstruction effort in Vale, as described in _What We Call Home_. Let me know what you think!
> 
> OST: _Forever Fall_ on the V6 OST.

longer than our lives endure

"Mom?"

His voice quavered, trembling hopefully as he breathed the word into the phone's receiver.

After a terrifyingly long pause, he heard a loving, familiar voice murmur, "Is this Jaune? Sweetheart, what is it? No one else is home, they're visiting your grandma since Wednesday… It's barely… 6 AM."

He let out a shuddering breath. He knew that it was too early for this. He had called anyways.

His crew members had left the haven which was the safe zone set up in Vale a few hours earlier, skulking in the shadows as much as possible to avoid drawing any Grimm. The dangerous mission was important, though; there was a stash of medical and research equipment, along with whole flats of fertilizers and other plant growth enhancers, stored in the bunker Professor Peach had set up in the middle of this forest years earlier. It would be a great asset in helping re-establish some of the destroyed farmland around the city, but they needed to extract it now, in the hour before the Grimm became more active.

Through the dense foliage above him, he could see how the sun was barely beginning to hint at dawn, only the faintest of yellows and oranges illuminating the horizon. He tore his eyes away- each ray of early-morning light was set ablaze by the red of the leaves they shone through. The vermillion was blinding. He didn't want to look at that colour anymore.

He regretted saying yes to this mission.

When he didn't respond for a moment, his mother pressed, "Sweetheart, what is it?"

Jaune almost sobbed aloud, hearing the concern in her voice.

Thank the gods that Glynda had seen him about to collapse from heartbreak. Thank the gods that the Huntress had lent him her temporary phone to use, allowing the boy to sit at the side while the others loaded up the cart. Thank the gods that the short-range communication towers were still functioning, and his signal could make it through to his family's cottage on Anima.

Because he just needed to talk to _someone_ he loved_, _hear _anyone's _voice. He couldn't be alone with his thoughts, not after everything that had happened.

Not while he was stuck in Forever Fall.

"Where are you, Jaune?"

He snapped back to the phone call. Through a clogged-up throat, he choked out, "Forever Fall."

She instantly hissed on the other end. "Sweetheart, what are you doing there?! That's so close to Beacon, you have to stay away-"

"_Mom,_" he cried, and she quieted down.

"…Are you on a mission?" she asked at last.

He nodded, sniffling- then, he muttered, "Yup," realizing that she couldn't see him.

"You nodded there, didn't you."

He snorted wryly despite his tears. "Caught me."

"Of course I did, you're my favourite idiot son," she cooed.

"I know," he whispered, voice hoarse.

They were both quiet for a moment, then the loving woman dared to ask, "So… why are you calling today, dear?"

Calls were rare in the midst of the CCTS breakdown. One only made calls when things of great importance occurred. After all, phones were a much rarer commodity, now that Scrolls were practically useless. People treasured the devices greatly.

"I just…"

She was quiet.

"The trees are so red here, Mom," he whimpered at last.

She didn't answer for a moment. Finally she yawned, then whispered, befuddled, "Isn't… isn't that why it's called Forever Fall, sweetheart?"

"No!" He immediately bit his tongue, glancing over to Glynda. The Huntress cast him a worried eye, then turned back to the others who were loading their carts, giving him some privacy. In a hushed whisper, he murmured, "No, it's not that. It's just…"

_It's too much like her._

"Oh, Jaune." She understood.

The blond shivered from head to toe, finding a seat on a nearby rock. Leaning on an adjacent tree trunk, he pressed his head back against it, feeling the smooth, dark bark catch his shaggy hair. Even untapped, he could smell the tree's sap- the trees of Forever Fall were, after all, well-known for their delicious and, surprisingly medicinal, sap.

But thoughts of sap collection drifted back into thoughts of _her, _and he whimpered again. The previous- and only- time he had ever been to this forest, normally so breathtaking with its vibrant red trees, had been in his first term at Beacon.

_Back then, I was still being picked on by Cardin. _

"You… miss her a lot, don't you."

His mother knew of Pyrrha Nikos- of the redheaded partner her only son had managed to find. Jaune could still remember the first time he had called home to announce the news that he- not Ren, not Nora, but _him, _Jaune Arc- was captain of the team with _the Pyrrha Nikos _on it. His mother had been speechless, and even more so when he haughtily explained to her, "Pyrrha said I was a natural-born leader, Mom! Look who's gonna be a cool Huntsman now!" Because _Pyrrha Nikos, _the girl who was on _every box of _Pumpkin Pete's _cereal, _believed in _him!_

She had been the first one to believe in him. He knew that as fact.

It all seemed so long ago.

…maybe that had been her biggest mistake all along; believing in Jaune Arc. He certainly hadn't been able to support her when she needed him.

The wind stirred the leaves, and he brushed his bangs out of his eyes, glancing upwards. The light was growing in intensity, the darkness of night fading away, indigo skies melting into sky blue slowly but surely. The crimson leaves above him fluttered in the canopy, and his heart wrenched.

"The first time…"

"Yeah?"

"The first time I saw her, she was really cool, y'know? Like… a superhero."

"Really?"

"Yeah." And it was true. He could still remember seeing how she had exploded into the air after being launched off the springboard during initiation. He hadn't known who she was- other than that she was the cereal girl, of course- but her hair had trailed after her, blocking out the sun for just one moment of fire and red energy and golden pride and _life, _a sparkling shooting star flying across the sky in the middle of the day, and his jaw had dropped and his heart had thudded in his chest, and…

And he had been dumb, and attributed that heartbeat to fear and nervousness and the rising anxiety stemming from the question no one seemed to be answering at the time: _What the hell is a landing strategy?!_

But her light hadn't faded. She had found him, and had smiled, and had touched his heart- his Aura- with her own so willingly that he _should've realized it from the start-_

"Jaune, sweetheart, it's okay, shh," his mother soothed on the other end, and it took Jaune a moment to realize that he had been babbling all of this out loud, and that he was now wholly and completely _sobbing. _

"But- but-" He shuddered and gasped, biting his knuckles to stifle his cries. He needed to calm down- they were in a forest _full of Grimm, _for gods' sake- but he just couldn't. Everywhere he looked, he saw her ponytail whipping behind a tree trunk, light footsteps flitting through the leaves, smile shining and green eyes adoring and- and-

Everywhere he looked, he saw Pyrrha.

"Sweetie, just breathe for me, okay?" the woman hummed on the other end, and Jaune stumbled to follow along. He paused, taking deep breaths- in, out- _1, 2-_

But he was right back where he started. That was how Pyrrha always used to meditate, how she always got so ready for whatever battle she needed to face. He had teased her once about it. Her face had fallen, and he had never talked about it again.

But he never forgot. Now, it seemed that no matter how much he tried to, he would never forget anything about the girl he had let slip away.

After a few moments, he choked out, "She made everything better, Mom. Everything. What am I...?"

"Shh, honey, I know," his mother whispered. "I know. I believe you. She was wonderful- lovely." She paused, and he could hear the woman turning on a tap- setting up the kettle, perhaps? She murmured, "Those pictures you sent, I, um… your father and I had them framed."

And that triggered a whole new flood of tears. He knew which photos she spoke of- they were from the Beacon Dance, from only a few months earlier. Nora had insisted on taking pictures of Jaune and Pyrrha dancing, and then at the end, the foursome had taken what had felt like a hundred photographs on the way home on the bubbly girl's Scroll. She had immediately sent them to everyone, and Jaune had sent some to Saphron, since she had been the one to pack him his white dress initially. Of _course _his elder sister had shared them all with the whole family.

"She was beautiful that night."

"She really was. You're a lucky boy, to have danced with her all night long."

"Yeah," he squeaked, biting his knuckle again. He was. That night, he had held her in his arms. Gods, how she had _laughed, _so warm and bright in her dress, so long and beautiful and red- always with the _damn red-_

But her earring. She had worn his earring.

_God, _how had he not figured it out?!

After a moment, the woman asked, "So. What now?"

He glanced over to where Glynda stood with the other Huntsmen and students on the mission. They were almost ready to head back. He sniffled, wiping his cheeks with a gloved hand clumsily. "I need to go."

"Okay, sweetheart. Do you know what you're doing later?"

"No."

"Okay. Do you think you're gonna come home?"

"No." _Lies. _"I'm staying here." _Lies. I don't wanna stay here._ "I… need to rebuild Vale."

_How can I just stay here, how can I just go home, when she won't get to do that ever again?_

She sighed. "Okay." He just focused on breathing. The kettle began to steam. Then, his mother murmured, "I love you, Jaune. Stay safe, and call when you can, okay?"

"I will." His words were barely louder than the rustling of the wind through the leaves, but after she murmured a few more heartfelt 'I love you's and 'stay safe's to him, he hung up the phone. Sniffling long and hard, he stood, walking back to the Huntress in charge.

"Mr. Arc, are you alright?"

He plastered on a wan smile. "I'll… be ready to fight, if I'm needed."

With a skeptical frown, she nodded, retrieving her phone from him before turning back to the loaded cart. "Time to get a move on, people!" she commanded.

And so, Jaune pulled out Crocea Mors, brandishing it at the ready for any Grimm that could come his way as he took his place behind the slow-moving cart. The procession demanded silence in order to avoid alerting the Grimm, especially now that it was day. But he didn't mind. His mind was still miles away- trapped in front of Beacon Tower's remains, where he had held Pyrrha in his arms properly, just the one time.

One time wasn't enough. It would never be enough.

He blinked back the tears, holding his breath until the urge to vomit out another cry abated. The sun had fully risen now, the sky completely light blue, just like how it had been the first time he had wandered through these tall, impossibly-crimson trees. That was the day he had learned to defend himself, learned to stand up strong- but he hadn't done it for himself.

He had done it to defend Pyrrha.

Maybe that was the only solace he could have- surrounded by these giant husks, their branches swishing and swaying in the wind with nothing but memories and regret from actions he could've taken, words he could've said, touches he could've felt- **_love_**_ he __**should've fucking shared**__-_

But there was no point in wishing. Jaune knew that when he arrived back at Vale, when he returned to his and Nora's and Ren's room in the makeshift Huntsmen's barracks that night, he'd unwrap Pyrrha's circlet and hold it in his hands. And he'd wish, for the forty-eighth night in a row, that he could meld that circlet into himself, feel her soul in his hands once more, become a part of her in the only way he could anymore. He just wanted to feel her with him. He just wanted her back.

The truth was evident, though. The next time he saw her, he'd be dead, too.

_But I'll wait, Pyrrha. Wait for me, too. I'll wait forever. _

He'd never love another. That was his curse for not being strong enough when it mattered most. He'd keep going wherever the road took him, and he'd do his best so that whenever he met her again, she'd maybe be proud of him.

No one commented on the tears that began rolling down his cheeks as the group finally left behind the red trees of Forever Fall, the shadows behind their trunks and long, fluttering leaves playing tricks on his eyes- forming, so seamlessly, so cruelly, into the dancing silhouette of the girl he'd grown to love too late.

** _-fin-_ **

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think in the comments!


End file.
